The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Plibersek urges charities to speak up

Federal Labor has accused the charity sector of not speaking up loudly enough against the Abbott government's foreign aid cuts.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek is disturbed by the lack of response from aid groups following the government's slashing of $7.6 billion from the overseas assistance program in this year's budget.

One in every five dollars saved in the May budget came from aid - the largest single source of savings identified.

In a speech to the heads of Australia's major aid organisations, Ms Plibersek warned the government was getting away with vandalising the agenda for global development.

"The Abbott government bet that even though the cuts to aid were the largest in the budget by far... the political consequences would be minimal," she told the Australian Council for International Development conference in Canberra.

"Although some organisations and individuals have spoken up, the lack of a co-ordinated response by the sector has proven them right."

Ms Plibersek said that $7.6 billion could have connected more than half a million people to basic sanitation or trained more than 30,000 health professionals in the developing world.

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She said more - not less - would be needed from the international community to combat poverty in the future, especially in the face of new challenges like climate change and crises like the Ebola outbreak.

But worse was the government "crowing" about its cuts to people who don't approve of foreign aid, while charity groups welcomed its commitment.

She said ground had been lost and there were two factors to be overcome.

"Leadership from government and a strong, coordinated campaign from the sector which can mobilise public sentiment," she said.